As the saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas, including our footprint on tech training in the Dallas area. Since 2015, Per Scholas Dallas has prepared more than 1,200 individuals for a career in tech with our tuition-free tech training, with training tracks in IT Support, Cybersecurity, AWS re/Start, and Software Engineering. Our training equips learners not only with technical skills, but also the soft skills needed to secure a job and advance in the industry, through mock interviews, professional development, and resume writing training, as well as support and coaching from MSW-accredited Learner Support Managers and Financial Coaches.

Our expansion across the broader Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex has been made possible by our generous funding partner, The BlackRock Foundation, who has collaborated with Per Scholas Dallas to focus on extending beyond Dallas County. Dallas is one of the nation’s top tech hubs, but there’s a massive talent gap that’s leaving scores of tech jobs vacant. That’s where Per Scholas Dallas comes in – training hundreds of diverse technologists in the skills needed for today’s tech jobs and helping those skilled technologists launch high-growth careers in tech.

The BlackRock Foundation is contributing $5M over the next three years to help Per Scholas expand in six states, including Texas. A portion of the grant is dedicated to supporting our operations in Dallas, enabling Per Scholas to nearly double our impact in Dallas in 2022 compared to the prior year. The grant marks The BlackRock Foundation’s first major investment into job training in Texas.

The BlackRock Foundation’s support will enable Per Scholas to enroll nearly 800 additional learners into a variety of tech courses offered by our Dallas campus through 2023 and grow our footprint in North Texas by expanding remote training courses for individuals in neighboring counties. First up are Collin and Tarrant counties, where access to rigorous tech training is low, but local tech talent demand is high.

Such significant support from The BlackRock Foundation is enabling Per Scholas Dallas to continue preparing our learners for a successful career in technology. “Texas is a melting pot of diversity, multiculturalism, and more,” shared Ciara Owens, Sr. Manager of Recruitment and Admissions. “We’ve had much success connecting many learners across counties and thanks to committed funders like The BlackRock Foundation, we will continue to warmly welcome those from Tarrant County, Collin County, and other surrounding areas to be a part of a major movement in the industry of tech, and that movement starts here at Per Scholas Dallas.”

To learn more about Per Scholas Dallas’ upcoming training tracks, click here!

Per Scholas President and CEO Plinio Ayala has been named to the Aspen Institute Latinos and Society Program’s Task Force. This task force was formed to address Latino Digital Success across the country.  Plinio Ayala is sitting on the task force with key leaders from our Champion Partners, Google and JPMorgan Chase. One Co-chair includes Hector Mujica, Head of Economic Opportunity for the Americas at Google.org, and fellow task force member Parag Mehta, Managing Director & President at JPMorgan Chase.

In June, the task force will host a roundtable discussion on principles for Digital Success and strategies to inspire action by companies, workforce organizations, and elected officials to better support the Latino community.

The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. To learn more about the digital success initiative with the task force, read the full press release here.

On April 6, Per Scholas partner ActivateWork hosted Elevating Colorado’s Economy by Launching Tech Careers, a robust conversation featuring Governor Jared Polis, Denver-area leading employers, ActivateWork Powered by Per Scholas graduates and Per Scholas’ own Chief Development Officer, Caitlyn Brazill.

“Our partnership with ActivateWork is truly unique, and a critical piece of Per Scholas’ ambitious scaling plan,” remarked Caitlyn Brazill. “Together, we can make opportunity ubiquitous in Colorado.”

ActivateWork, powered by Per Scholas, began offering tuition-free technical training in 2020 and to date, has graduated more than 120 diverse individuals in skills ranging from IT Support to Software Engineer to Cybersecurity and more. In 2021 alone, 48 graduates launched careers in tech at companies including, Bank of America, Trimble, FirstBank, Dish Network, and more. ActivateWork, powered by Per Scholas, will train more than 1,200 Denver-based learners in tech skills over the next five years, boosting the region’s economy and continuing to launch tech careers in Colorado. 

On April 28, 2022, Per Scholas President and CEO Plinio Ayala delivered keynote remarks at The Excel Center’s National Conference. The conference, held in Indianapolis, focused on Goodwill Industries’ mission to prepare students for college and ensuring schools are up-to-date for educating community members eager to expand their knowledge – in short, preparing the 21st century workforce.  

Similarly to Goodwill Industries’ mission to prepare individuals to enter the workforce, Per Scholas has been a champion for workforce development for our learners and graduates.  During his keynote address, Plinio highlighted the ways Per Scholas creates more equitable economic opportunity. 

Speaking on Per Scholas and Excel Center training offerings, Plinio reflected, “I know that tomorrow morning, millions of Americans will wake up looking for that one opportunity that will change the trajectory of their lives, the future for their families – and many will go to bed not having found that one chance. Excel Center and Per Scholas must continue to persevere and provide opportunity to as many Americans as we can. Not because it is a good thing to do, but because it is the right thing to do.”

Per Scholas is honored to be among this year’s Red Nose Day grantee partners through a matching grant partnership with Comcast NBCUniversal! In its eighth year, Red Nose Day is a beloved fundraising event by Comic Relief US to help end the cycle of child poverty and ensure a healthy, empowered future for all children and youth. Per Scholas helps change trajectories by preparing our learners, many of whom are youth or have children, to launch life-changing careers in technology by participating in our rigorous, cost-free tech skills training. 

As we train our learners to start a career in tech through IT support, cybersecurity, software engineering, and more, we prepare individuals to have a well-rounded skill set that creates economic equity and financial stability for their families. 

Per Scholas Chicago Graduate Veronica Vergara applied to Per Scholas to create her own path of opportunity that was flexible so she could be available for her daughter, if needed. Veronica’s daughter suffered from serious health problems previously, so she quit work to focus on her daughter’s health. A year and a half later, Veronica’s daughter’s condition had greatly improved, and Veronica began preparing to rejoin the workforce. Her husband worked in IT and she admired many features of his job, including its flexibility and good pay, which is why she applied to Per Scholas to launch her IT career.

Another example of how Per Scholas’s cost-free tech training has enhanced our learners’ lives and the lives of their children is through Sadaf Haroon, a Per Scholas Dallas Software Engineering graduate. Sadaf, an immigrant mother of three, was at first intimidated to resume a career in the thriving field of tech. “Per Scholas made it easier for me to learn and now I am an earning member of my family. What can be greater than that?” 

In the two years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, more children have faced hunger, homelessness, and a growing learning gap, making those programs, funded by Red Nose Day, more crucial than ever. 

This Red Nose Day marks a return to the tradition of coming together in person to have fun, raise money, and change lives. The annual campaign’s signature Red Nose, the universal symbol for Red Nose Day, will be back and available exclusively at nearly 9,000 Walgreens and Duane Reade locations nationwide for just $1 each, with 100% of all proceeds benefiting Red Nose Day. Customers may also donate in stores via pin-pad at checkout, as well as online to receive a Digital Red Nose filter, and can show support donning a real Red Nose or virtual one!

Tune in on May 26th to NBC, which is supporting the Red Nose Day campaign across the network and through cross-portfolio programming features.

Per Scholas became the first organization to sign the Vibrant Pittsburgh DEI Pledge. Signatory organizations commit to taking collective action to create a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable Pittsburgh region.

“Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging is at Per Scholas’s core. We believe that talent is ubiquitous, but unfortunately, we know opportunity is not. That’s why we’re passionately committed to removing barriers, increasing access, and advancing economic equity through rigorous tech training,” said Plinio Ayala, President and CEO of Per Scholas. “We’re proud to be a signatory of the Vibrant Pittsburgh DEI Pledge and look forward to being a meaningful contributor to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging progress here in Pittsburgh.” 

Per Scholas Pittsburgh Managing Director Todd Derby will lead our contributions to this essential work. To learn more about Vibrant Pittsburgh, visit www.vibrantpittsburgh.org. 

Per Scholas St. Louis was featured in St. Louis Public Radio for our partnership with Cortex Innovation Community. With this partnership, we will offer a free, 15-week cybersecurity training for people of color and women interested in tech careers.

Dr. Charlie Mackey Jr. is the Managing Director of Per Scholas and hopes to bring more underrepresented individuals to the tech industry through this partnership and training. “Historically, underrepresented people aren’t working in the tech fields, because they’re like, ‘Well, I have to go to the West Coast, or it’s not available here,’” Mackey said. “By coming here, we can not only help bridge that gap, but also reframe it to where you can get that technology training right here, and then find a job here.”

With our expansion to St. Louis, we are able to offer our tuition-free, rigorous technical training as the latest addition to Cortex. Per Scholas has advanced economic equity for more than 25 years by offering evidence-based, tuition-free technology training and connecting Per Scholas graduates to high-growth careers in technology. Aligned with its commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, 85 percent of Per Scholas learners are people of color, and more than a third identify as women. Graduates are hired into tech roles by more than 650 employer partners nationwide, ranging from Fortune 500 to innovative startups.

Check out the full feature on the St. Louis NPR site here.

The Columbus Dispatch featured Per Scholas in an article featuring our Tech Women of Color workforce initiative.  This initiative is supported by a $4.5 million grant that was unanimously approved by the Franklin County Board of Commissioners on International Women’s Day. The free, 15-week course will kick off in July and aims to train 200 women of color in cohorts over the next two years.

“We are grateful to the Franklin County Board of Commissioners for providing us the opportunity to be of service to our community, and to our local partners who will come alongside us as we seek to make a transformative impact in this county,” stated Jenn Fowler Howard, Senior Director of the Tech Women of Color Alliance. “We recognize that this project will not only change the lives of the women who participate but will also build stronger families, communities, and businesses for years to come.”

This workforce initiative is part of Per Scholas’s ongoing goal to promote the presence of women in tech.

Read the full article from The Columbus Dispatch here!

Per Scholas St. Louis has officially launched, expanding our tech training offering to our 18th city as part of Cortex Innovation Community. Our partnership is part of a strategic plan to bring more tech companies and jobs to the St. Louis community. We will begin by offering Cybersecurity training, scheduled to start in June 2022.

Read more in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch here!